He was staring at me incredulously. His face was incredible.
"You think I lifted a van off you?" His tone questioned my sanity, but it only made me more suspicious. It was like a perfectly delivered line by a perfect actor. And it wasn't a question.
I merely nodded once, jaw tight.
"Nobody will believe that, you know." His voice held an edge of derision now.
"I'm... not... going... to... tell... anybody." I said each word carefully, so my meaning wouldn't get muddled or lost in the space between us.
Surprise flitted across his face, like a butterfly. "Then why does it matter?"
"It matters to me," I insisted. "I don't like to lie. And I especially don't like to lie to myself. And I also don't like—"
"Can't you just thank me and get over it?" Get over the fact that he had just saved my life in a mind-blowingly mysterious way? Forget his face? Forget the way his eyes looked, half gold and half black, as he was looking down on me from his godly stance?
"Thank you." I waited, fuming and expectant.
"You're not going to let it go, are you?"
"No." I wasn't.
"In that case... I hope you enjoy disappointment."
I didn't.
Our eyes scowled at each other. I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused. I was in constant danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel with feeble, human eyes.
"Why did you even bother?" I asked frigidly. His face had melted my heart,96 but not my will to discover the truth— that persisted, continued to challenge him.
He paused, and for a brief moment his stunning face was unexpectedly vulnerable.
"I don't know," he whispered so softly that I had no idea what he meant.
"What?" I asked.
"I said," he walked closer, and leaned down into the personal space that I was more than willing to share with him, as mad as I may have been in the moment. "I said," he continued, his eyes moving from side to side, from me, to the window, to the wall. Was he trying to avoid my glance? Was he failing to avoid it because he, too, felt a certain heat between us that transcended the laws of physics? "I said: I don't know." He exhaled, feeling like the conclusion of an epic trilogy that had taken him only thirty seconds to write.
And then he turned his back on me and walked away.
I was so angry, it took a few minutes until I could move. When I did move, I walked slowly to the exit at the end of the hallway.
96. Oh my fucking god.